gas central heating questions

[sidecar_jon]

well bit of a disaster, new house (well 1800 but new to us) gas central heating lovely hot water etc. only wife thinks its a good idea to get British gas to cover it for breakdowns.... ok.. so after three missed visits they eventually turn up. Right when he set foot in door he says .. we wont cover that, that vents to small etc (tho aprently it was covered with another firm till last year with previous owners).. anyway Hes very negative about my poor baxi Bemuda and says he'll "service it" and see if it pases then (?) then say it wont and his boss says on the phone to charge £135 for the service.....i say No switch it off if its dangerious, so he does and puts a danger tag on it etc... ok. fine. So where from here?....not got a lot of confidence in British gas, i destinctly got the impression that they will cut off any system not almost new.

So new boiler? (how much is that going to cost ish?) and will a new boiler link up to the existing radiators?... at the moment i favour getting a wood stove and putting that in if only to get some heat this winter! ( i presume id have to remove the chimney cap for that tho?)


i might add married harmony and heat for five year old child may have to defer to the overdraught for quite soem time yet... but id like some heating this winter!

 

[kevplumb]

what did they fail it on

 

[ollski]

What is it?, whats the matter with it?, what catagory has he left it and why?, and why didn't you ask the engineer??
The age of an appliance is completely irrelevant to any engineer and it will only be cut off if it's dangerous....it's a ton more work to fail something than to pass it.

 

[sidecar_jon]

they failed it one... well it dipends on who you ask. The letter said..its inacessable (??) but acording to thier "help line" ventilation and flue... and yesterday the wife had a row with them on the phone and they are sending round and engineer to "survey" the situation... what they said was interesting, basicaly any installation not up to CURRENT standards would fail, he actually said OVER TWO YEARS OLD!


i see they are advertiseing on TV that they cover any age boiler.....sounds a bit like a lie to me right now.

 

[ChrisR]

What's inaccessible?

I don't know how many of these things I've looked at for Landlord's Safety Records, but I can only remember ONE which was 100% OK. What lets them all down is the requirement to seal between the flue liner and the chimney walls. In other words a horizontal sheet of asbestos-type material. Sometimes called the "Third Seal".
Corgi's wonderful leaflet says that if that's missing, the appliance is "At Risk". ie don't use it, £5000 fine if you do.

"Unless it would be impractical to fit the seal", then it's only Not To Current Stds and you can keep using it.

I have no idea what Corgi are calling "Impractical". As far as I'm concerned Corgi are impractical, and it's impractical to fit the 3rd seal once the boiler/fire's in place. So I called them all NTSC as far as that is concerned. A good number fail for other reasons it has to be said, and it's usually lack of ventilation.

If you have NO vent it's AR< if you have a vent which is too small then it's only NTSC, though that's going to change in 3 years.

If all you need is a vent, just put one in - either in a wooden floor or through the wall(s).
If they're moaning about the 3rd seal, kick em out and find a reasonable local htg bod - can't be that difficult!

A new boiler would have to go somewhere else now, almost certainly - extra ££.

 

[Nige F]

Know nought about boilers........But, are you a sidecar pilot? Got a Kwak 750 GT with Watsonian sports chair..old but a good un Good luck with the boiler, these guys DO know their stuff.

 

[sidecar_jon]

i was a sidecar pilot..... first a £50 jawa...then another (this time free!)... and eventuly a BMW R80 (1978) with watsonian palma (braced and screw fittings,.. now Watsonian fittings theres a plmbers nightmare!).. now i have a quadricyle And Aixam due to five year old child and me being a househusband!



anyway yes the flue thing rings a bell..... i dont trust them further than i can throw a car...cynical moi?
... so vent wise..if i threw a brick thro the window that would be ok then...

 

[chrishutt]

if i threw a brick thro the window that would be ok then...

No. The ventilation has to be permanent.

 

[ollski]

they failed it one... well it dipends on who you ask. The letter said..its inacessable (??) but acording to thier "help line" ventilation and flue... and yesterday the wife had a row with them on the phone and they are sending round and engineer to "survey" the situation... what they said was interesting, basicaly any installation not up to CURRENT standards would fail, he actually said OVER TWO YEARS OLD!


i see they are advertiseing on TV that they cover any age boiler.....sounds a bit like a lie to me right now.

Who told you that rubbish?....if its 'not to current standards' it is fine just has a recommendation to bring it up to standard, but no safety or operational implications. Forget about it.
If its 'at risk' there is a potential for a situation which could be hazardous, the appliance will be turned off and if you want to turn it back on you take responsibility British Gas won't take on an 'at risk' appliance, unless you remedy the situation.
Age has no part in whatsoever except that where the boiler is so old the parts cannot be obtained, then there is no point accepting it on a contract as BG wouldn't be able to repair it.

 

[sidecar_jon]

well i was told, as the Bg guy "capped it off"... not to use it... nothing about getting it fixed or what ever, just im putting a danger tag on it and turning it off. No mention of being able to turn it on again or anything.... and quite honestly i dont want it on BG's maintainace plan as they seem to be a bunch of incompitants... if not their engineers certainly thier office is. Quiet posibly its leathel but i dont know , no ones told me.

Oh the engineer who was soposed to be ariveing between 12 and six..phoned at ten to six and rearanged it to tommorow "if he can catch me" and was compleatly in the dark abotu what was going on anyway....great.



Are the engineers on commision on new boilers they sell?

 

[kevplumb]

if it was capped off as ID you should have a copy of the warning notice
listing the reasons why

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Get a local CORGI guy who comes recommended, ask neighbours, friends family work colleages for who they use, stuff BG they are a waste of YOUR money but DONT use the appliance until it is checked out properly.

 

[ollski]

well i was told, as the Bg guy "capped it off"... not to use it... nothing about getting it fixed or what ever, just im putting a danger tag on it and turning it off. No mention of being able to turn it on again or anything.... and quite honestly i dont want it on BG's maintainace plan as they seem to be a bunch of incompitants... if not their engineers certainly thier office is. Quiet posibly its leathel but i dont know , no ones told me.

Oh the engineer who was soposed to be ariveing between 12 and six..phoned at ten to six and rearanged it to tommorow "if he can catch me" and was compleatly in the dark abotu what was going on anyway....great.



Are the engineers on commision on new boilers they sell?

Its up to the engineer to explain what he has found...he is the only one who has seen it so its going to be virtually impossible for anyone else to tell you what you need to know. If he capped it off and put an immediately dangerous tag on it then it is an immediate danger to life or property.
If you didn't pass the initial inspection then the boiler won't be on a contract and your money will be refunded, however the engineer should have performed basic flue flow and spillage checks to make sure it was safe. I would presume it failed and the engineer then offered a one off service to try to rectify the problem at a fixed repair fee, which you declined meaning the boiler had to be isolated (any independent engineer would also have to follow this route). Engineer has now done his duty to the gas safety regs, you are not on a contract and have declined remedial work to make safe. BG now have no responsibility for your boiler at all, but to offer to inspect it again for a contract when it has been made good. Does that sound close?

 

[sidecar_jon]

no they sent us a letter saying its was "inacessable"... no flow/gas up flue test was done, he looked at it and the vent from across the room, said it wouldnt pass (for the maintainance deal).. took the front off, described the heat exchanger as "sooty" didnt do much else exept cap it off. Ok fine its dangerious, i said turn i off then and he did. As for the "sevice" he offerd it at £135 and "it wouldnt pass after anyway".... which i took to mean he would still cap it anyway, tho maybe he ment it would not be taken on mantainace contract.

Im just quite confused as to what to do next. i think maybe he and i were talking at cross perposes. i didnt knwo what he was telling me and he didnt know what i wanted.

im tempted to put in a wood burning stove actuly.

 

[kevplumb]

capped it off or switched it off
there is a difference